The present invention pertains to the crushing and compaction of glass bottles for disposal. More particularly, the present invention pertains to the on-site crushing of glass for volume reduction, compaction and subsequent disposal and/or recycling.
In many food service establishments, for example, restaurants and lounges, the storage of empty glass containers such as soft drink bottles, beer bottles, wine bottles and the like, poses problems due to limited storage space and accidental breaking which can result in hazardous conditions. Moreover, regardless of how they are disposed of, bottles require storage space prior to being carted away to a disposal or recycling facility. That is, the bottles must be stored until transportation for recycling or disposal can be arranged.
As a result, valuable floor space is often wasted on storing empty bottles in crates or other containers until the bottles can be delivered to or picked up by a disposal or recycling facility. The use of storage space can become an acute problem in bars and restaurants where large numbers of empty glass bottles can result from even one evening's operation.
Even at establishments that do not recycle (that is where bottles are disposed of as trash) storage is a concern because of the time and effort required in handling and transporting the bottles. In a bar, for example, trash bins located behind the bar tend to fill quickly since each empty bottle takes up a considerable volume in the bin. As a result, bottle or trash bins must be manually carried (and generally frequently) to a dumpster that may be located outside of the building. In addition, the bottle bins (behind the bar) can take up valuable space and can interfere with the efficient movement of the bartender or waiter.
In an effort to address this problem, devices are known that pulverize glass bottles and contain the pulverized glass. Such devices use a pulverizing blade located within a somewhat isolated chamber to reduce the glass volume by breaking the bottles into small pieces of glass. However, such devices produce glass shards and/or glass dust, and often cannot adequately contain the pulverized glass. It has been found that in such known system, glass shards and “dust” tend to escape into the surrounding areas and the glass that is pulverized often is not in sufficiently small fragments to permit readily handling the glass material.
Accordingly, there is a need for a bottle crushing system. Desirably, such a system is self-contained within a relatively small package or unit. More desirably, such a system crushes the glass within an isolated chamber such that glass shards are retained within the chamber. Most desirably, such a system eliminates regions, such as in brushes or the like, in which contamination can collect resulting in bacterial growth.